Dublin hospice worker claims he assisted suicides

A former employee of a hospice in south Dublin is in police custody in the North after he claimed that he assisted a number of suicides at the facility in the 1990s.

The 31-year-old man was formally arrested in Belfast last night after he contacted the PSNI voluntarily in recent days about his alleged activities.

He claims to have helped a number of patients take their own lives at Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross in 1997 and 1998.

The hospice says no deaths during this period were suspicious and it is co-operating fully with the investigation into the matter.

A number of garda officers have been sent to the North to assist the PSNI in assessing the credibility of the claims.

The man who made them is also understood to have undergone psychiatric assessment.